HP nc6400 Laptop with OSX wifi working!!

Hello all, I was able to get the wireless on my HP nc6400 laptop working. While my sig only tells of dual booting, I am now triple booting, Vista, Ubuntu, and OSX. I needed to set up an Ubuntu Partition in order to get the wireless to work. At first I was part of a team to hack the intel pro wirless. But medschool proved too busy for me so I gave up.

In comes eBay. My card was the Intel Pro Wireless 3945 abg, and Dell makes a wifi card that fits the 3945 module called the Dell 1390 mini PCIE card. I picked up one of these suckers on eBay for 10 dollars including shipping. The thing came in 2 days. I put the card in and booted up the comp thinking it would work OOB. Wrong, I got a nice error: 104-Unsupported wireless network device detected. System Halted. Remove device and restart.

So then, this is where I got up on google on the mad search. Here is the guide.....Good luck, There may be another way to get this to work. Preface: requires a screwdriver, and balls to mod your SPROM

Forward: If you can find a way to have the build-essentials module in your choice of Linux distro you dont have to install that Linux Distro on your laptop. Or perhaps you can create the partition and then delete the partition once you have modded your SPROM to work with the Dell 1390.

So I fired up my Ubuntu Live CD, installed Gutsy Gibbon and followed these instructions (modified by me cause there were a few mistakes. Original credit goes to Philip J Fry) So, provided that....

You have a HP laptop and there is no driver for your miniPCI express card ?You bought a $10 dell 1390 card but you can't use it because of the "104 unsupported network device" ?You don't want to hack your BIOS (but the card SPROM) ?

IF You have easy access to a wired connection drop down and continue. If you dont, scroll down this guide and download in the OS of your choice: all the files needed. And slap all these on a USB, then put them all on your Linux Distro Desktop when you get to it

1. Remove the miniPCI-e card. There should be a wifi module underneath your laptop that holds the wifi card that can be easily swapped out. Get out that Precision screw driver. If you dont have one walmart has em for 94 cents in the Automotive Section. Dont fall victim to stripping your own screws

3. Boot up the linux based OS and make sure build-essentials is installed (can be found in synaptics package manager). If not, in Terminal do a sudo apt-get install build-essentials, some distro's its just build-essential

4. Load the Terminal and Check that the bcm43xx linux module is present: > sudo modprobe bcm43xxNow, we need the chip firmware:> wget http://downloads.ope...ta-3.130.20.0.oWe have to extract it to /lib/firmware with the tool bcm43xx-fwcutter> wget http://prdownload.be...ter-006.tar.bz2> tar xvf bcm43xx-fwcutter-006.tar.bz2> cd bcm43xx-fwcutter-006> make> sudo ./bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o (This file may need to be put in the bcm43xx-fwcutter-006 folder)

Then, reload the module> sudo rmmod bcm43xx> sudo modprobe bcm43xxNow, turn on the card and try it:> sudo ifconfig eth1 up> sudo iwlist eth1 scan(! the card may not be eth1)If you get a list of available networks, the card works fine. Skip the next lines and begin Step 5. If not, check the next lines.

(These instructions may not work with special kernel/config/... If so, see http://linuxwireless...ers/Drivers/b43 to get the card working on linux.) Instructions on this site are pretty good. Once you load those, run the last 4 sudo commands again

This also works great on an NC2400. Procedure I followed is largely the same as the original post, just edited to include updated links and notes that Hardy Heron disk doesn't work, Feisty Fawn does.

1. Remove the miniPCI-e card. Laptop upside down with the Windows license writing upside down it's under the door to the right of the regulatory label

2. Start your notebook with a Feisty Fawn live disk in the drive (not Hardy Heron, it doesn't work, use Feisty Fawn). Booting from the live disk works absolutely fine, slow but fine!!

At this point press the key to prevent it booting. Put the Dell card in really carefully, it fits at a 45 degree angle and screw into place. At this point I didn't screw it all back together just in case you do something wrong and have to reboot starting at step 1 again.

3. Press the F4 key to use VGA mode and choose 640x480x16

4. Load the Terminal and Check that the bcm43xx linux module is present:> sudo modprobe bcm43xxNow, we need the chip firmware:> wget http://downloads.ope...ta-3.130.20.0.oWe have to extract it to /lib/firmware with the tool bcm43xx-fwcutter> wget http://download2.ber...ter-006.tar.bz2> tar xvf bcm43xx-fwcutter-006.tar.bz2> cd bcm43xx-fwcutter-006> make> sudo ./bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o (This file WILL need to be put in the bcm43xx-fwcutter-006 folder)

Then, reload the module> sudo rmmod bcm43xx> sudo modprobe bcm43xxNow, turn on the card and try it:> sudo ifconfig eth1 up> sudo iwlist eth1 scan(! the card may not be eth1)If you get a list of available networks, the card works fine. Skip the next lines and begin Step 5. If not, check the next lines.

Oh, the dreaded 3945... that thing is a pain. I have the same thing, I just settled on a USB Wireless card.
I remember the first time I got my Leopard/Seven/Ubuntu tri-boot working... it took some patience, but I did it. Congrats .